Russia’s presidency of the Security Council faced its first show of resistance on Tuesday as Britain, in a rare move, blocked a United Nations webcast of an informal Council meeting this week on the forcible transfer of Ukrainian children to Russia.
Britain’s mission to the United Nations said it blocked the webcast because Russia had scheduled its commissioner for children’s rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, to address the meeting. She, like Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin, are the subjects of arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court in The Hague last month, citing allegations of war crimes for the abduction and illegal deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia.
“She should not be afforded a U.N. platform to spread disinformation,” said a statement from Britain’s mission to the U.K. “If she wants to give an account of her actions, she can do so in The Hague.”
A note outlining the meeting that was circulated by Russia’s mission states that its purpose is to dispel a “deliberate distorted narrative” by Western media and some countries about Russia’s treatment of Ukrainian children. Russia rejects the accusations of coercion and abduction, saying it evacuated the children for their safety and protection.
In addition to Ms. Lvova-Belova, four other officials involved with the transfer of children are scheduled to brief the Council. One is a Russian adviser on humanitarian affairs to Ms. Lvova-Belova’s office, and three are local child protection officials from Donetsk, one of four Ukrainian regions that Russia illegally annexed last fall.
U.S. and European diplomats had warned that Russia would use its platform as the rotating president of the Council this month to spread misinformation and that they would counter such attempts. Britain’s action on Tuesday appeared to demonstrate their determination to follow through on that promise.
Russia pledged to provide an alternative to the webcast, but how it would do so was unclear. Without that, the event will be limited to those physically in attendance, meaning accredited journalists and diplomats. It also means no video of the session will be saved in the U.N.’s archives.
A Western diplomat with the Council who was not authorized to speak on the record said it appeared that Russia was being deliberately provocative in scheduling Ms. Lvova-Belova to speak, knowing that it could portray any backlash as censorship.
Blocking a live webcast of an informal Council meeting is extremely rare. Last month China blocked the U.N. webcast of an informal session on abuses in North Korea called by the U.S., maintaining that the Council should not discuss human rights issues. It was the first time that any of the Council’s members had objected to the webcast, which requires the permission of all 15.
Russia’s deputy U.N. ambassador, Dmitry Polyanskiy, who tweeted that Russia would find another way to provide live coverage of the meeting, also said that Western officials were “clearly afraid that many people will at last hear the truth on this topic.”
He then suggested that a tit-for-tat could follow. “Russia will from now on block U.N. webcasts of all similar meetings citing ‘UK censorship clause’,” Mr. Polyanskiy said in the tweet.
